Swamped

"So, is this what the night shift is usually like?" you ask casually. Probably not, but it's a starting point.

"Goodness, no. For one, we don't normally have so many patients."

"Really? Why the rush tonight?"

"The holy festival." She sighs. "It's important, but it brings the crowds, and a lot of them are sailors. Sailors can get quite rowdy, you know."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," you agree. "So is that causing any trouble?"

"Plenty. For one thing, it would be harder for a patient to wander around as much as Mr. Long has if we didn't have a good two dozen or so to keep an eye on."

Long? Now that's a name that strikes you.

"Huh. Never knew that was his last name." For that matter, you don't know his first name, but that might make your relative familiarity with him seem odd. So you'll keep quiet on that for now. "Funny thing is, I think I did know somebody else with that last name, but I can't quite place who it was off the top of my head."

"First one I think of is that general in Kandria," she muses. "The one who keeps picking fights with the king and amazes everyone by holding onto her job despite that. Maybe you heard about her?"

No, but that's certainly interesting.

"Might be it. Is it a common name over there? Can't say I know much about Kandria."

"Me neither. Last names are mostly held by nobles over there, but on the other hand, pretty much every major family has had a branch or two that didn't stay nobles. And they usually keep the name."

Hmm. You're not sure this is a productive line of conversation right now. Probably best to ask the wizard himself about the name instead of moving the subject into Kandrian politics. You've got enough problems with Kandria back in your own time without adding the historical ones into the mix.

So you do a little thinking about what you'd like to talk about instead.